By now the treatment of public education as so much political nonsense is so common that we just take it for granted. Yet we are still surprised that Governor Walker would resort to a stunt like recommending repeal of the state’s Common Core standards.

Even responsible Republicans like Rep. Steve Kestell acknowledge the GOP majority will likely support the Governor’s political gambit, rather than listen to people who actually know something about public education like Kestell and equally reasonable Sen. Luther Olson. They, and some of the smartest educators and researchers in the state, know the standards are working and given time and some needed tweaking will work even better.

But the goal of repeal advocates is not a better education system or smarter kids. It’s a goofy and misleading connection to anti-government and anti-public schools ideology.

It’s bad enough that activists at the far ends of both political parties have created this contrived controversy. It’s worse that our Governor has decided to pander to those folks rather than lead a constructive discussion of the best way to educate our kids.

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